International Business Vocabulary

A comprehensive set of flashcards covering key vocabulary and definitions related to international business.

Raw materials

The basic materials from which goods are made.

Business incubator

A company that helps find and grow new business.

Moore's law

The prediction that processing power will double every 24 months.

Human capital

The abilities, skills, experience, and knowledge possessed by individuals.

Collaborative synergy

The ability to create an environment where people understand that success for one member of the team means success for all members of the team.

Shared economy

A system in which an owner rents something they are not using to a stranger using peer-to-peer services.

Performance-improving innovation

Improvements to existing products or ideas that meet more of a customer's needs.

Efficiency-enhancing innovations

Changes to existing products or ideas that make them lower cost.

Market-creating innovations

Products or ideas that meet the needs of a group of potential consumers whose needs have not been met before.

Innovators imperative

The need for individuals to understand local market problems and apply foreign knowledge to solve them.

Open innovation platforms

Electronic platforms where different companies and independent contractors work collaboratively with internal R&D staff to innovate.

Company culture

The unique combination of a company's vision, values, norms, systems, symbols, language, assumptions, beliefs, and habits.

Stretch goals

Goals that represent objectives that require employees to exceed reasonable expectations.

Patent

A form of legal protection that excludes anyone other than the holder from making, using, or selling the invention.

Copyright

A form of protection available to authors of literary, dramatic, musical, or artistic intellectual property.

Trademark

Legal protection of a recognizable brand name, design, or logo.

Trade secret

Any information that provides a business with a competitive advantage but is not shared openly.

Liability of foreignness

A liability foreign firms face as cultural, administrative, geographic, and/or economic differences increase.

Ethnocentrism bias

A bias indicating that customers prefer local brands over foreign brands.

Exporting

Sending goods or services out of a company's home country.

Joint venture

A separate company jointly owned by two or more companies.

Turnkey projects

A project in which a foreign company hires a local company to build a facility ready for immediate use.

Licensing

Permission to use another company's trademarks, patents, copyrights, or expertise.

Franchising

Permission to use another company’s trademarks, patents, and expertise under strict guidelines.

Wholly owned subsidiary

A new legal entity fully owned by the parent firm for operation in a foreign market.

Alliance

A contractual relationship between two or more companies.

Strategy

The actions managers take in pursuit of company objectives.

Low-cost strategy

A strategy that helps companies succeed through efficiencies and reducing costs.

Differentiation strategy

A strategy that helps companies succeed by differentiating their product in order to persuade customers to pay more for it.

Local responsiveness

Adjusting or creating an approach to meet the needs of local markets.

Intracultural variation

The range of differences in traits or behaviors among individuals within the same culture.

Global integration

The process by which a company combines different global activities.

Multidomestic strategy

A strategy where global firms respond to differentiated needs in each local market.

Global branding

A marketing approach where promotion, product, and price are standardized globally.

Location economies

The cost advantage of performing each stage in the value chain at the lowest cost.

Transnational strategy

A hybrid approach combining meganational and multidomestic strategies.

Meganational strategy

A strategy focusing on profitable growth through economies of scale.

Global leadership

The process of influencing others to adopt a positive vision globally.

Complexity

Operating in multiple countries and recognizing varying optimal solutions for different countries.

Presence

Degree of required physical movement across geographic, cultural, and national boundaries.

Contextual resilience

A leader's ability to anticipate roadblocks and adapt in a complex environment.

Personal integrity

A demonstration of honesty and high ethical standards in work.

Functional excellence

The ability to collaborate across different units in a company.

Corporate vision

Understanding the company's overarching objectives.

Global mindset

The ability to scan the global market and draw ideas from diverse contexts.

Market savvy

A leader's accountability for their products and services in local markets.

Marketing mix

The collection of decisions regarding product, place, price, and promotion.

Global marketing strategy

The approach to deciding market segments and positioning offerings.

ex: Harley Davidson and Vietnam

Global market segmentation

Grouping customers across national markets based on various criteria.

Glocalization

Achieving global integration while meeting local market demands.

Guerilla marketing

Marketing through unconventional means to generate social buzz.

Pull marketing

Marketing efforts designed to cultivate customer desires.

Brand

The name, term, design, or symbol that identifies a seller's goods.

Brand loyalty

Commitment to a brand despite competition.

Brand equity

The additional market share earned due to a brand's strength.

Brand image

The set of associations in a customer’s mind regarding a brand.

Cost-plus strategy

Pricing a product at a fixed margin over costs.

Penetration pricing strategy

Setting a low price to encourage trial by customers.

Dumping

Selling a product for less than its production cost to capture market share.

Gray market activity

Buying products in cheaper markets to sell in more expensive ones.

Push marketing

Efforts to actively push a product through distribution channels.

Skimming

Setting a high price for a product to attract premium customers.

Distribution

The process of taking goods from production to consumption.

Outsourcing

Obtaining a good or service from an external supplier.

Transfer pricing

The price charged in trade between parts of the same multinational corporation.

Offshoring

Moving production outside the home country.

Insourcing

Using a company's internal resources to accomplish tasks.

Dual sourcing

Producing in-house while also purchasing from suppliers.

Reshoring

Moving production from abroad back to the home country.

Supply chain

The system involved in moving products from supplier to customer.

Operational risk

measures how difficult it is to codify and control the production process.

Structural risk

A measure of difficulty when vendor relationships do not work as expected.

Just-in-time (JIT)

A method of manufacturing that avoids excess inventory.

Offset agreement

An agreement where a supplier buys products from a seller to win business.

Enterprise resource-planning (ERP) systems

Technology that gathers all relevant information into a single database.

Big data

Extremely large data sets used to uncover important trends.

Consortium

A collection of companies in an alliance, pooling their resources to deliver a turnkey project.

International Strategy

Actions by which companies manage differences across borders to create advantages over their competitor.

Support function

Something that enable primary functions to operate more efficiently and effectively to create value.

Value creation

The process of maximizing the difference between a customer’s willingness to pay and the cost of a product.

Value capture

The process of maximizing the portion of created value which the company keeps.

Flow

The movement of information and relations across countries and business units.

High cultural intelligence

differentiating features of someone else’s behavior that relate to culture and altering your own expressions when a cultural encounter requires it. it is found in people who have the desire and understanding necessary to interact effectively with people from different cultures and to see commonalities among people

General competencies

Collaborative synergy

cultural intelligence

contextual resilience

personal integrity

Company-related competencies

Corporate vision

functional excellence

Location-related competencies

Market savvy

global mindset

R from RAP framework

Review past behaviors and recognize strengths.

A in RAP framework

Coach for the future and develop a plan

P in RAP framework

Help people see “why” and to associate with cause

procurement process

Acquiring products

Production

Producing products to sell.

Logistics

Moving materials through the production system

R&D

Designing new products.

Minimum efficient scale

The smallest production quantity at which long-run, total average cost (cost per unit) is minimized.

Cloud-based application

perform any number of disparate functions and enable companies to coordinate data, schedules, performance metrics, and plans in real time.

Production system

The overall strategy and mechanism for converting inputs—such as raw materials, land, labor, machinery, information, and energy—into a product that brings value to customers.